1. Field of the Invention
The invention concerns a universal building frame principally for the load-bearing support systems of single-storey buildings of light structure, wherein the framework of the building is constituted by the combination of vertical columns and essentially horizontal beams with or without overhangs, connected to the columns and in given cases also supplementary columns, the members of the supporting system being assembled into a framework for a building on site by means of bolts of expediently identical diameter, the elements of the framework being co-ordinated as to dimension at least in the sense of the ground plan and being expediently fitted to a network based on a single basic module (m), the longitudinal dimensions of the supporting elements being integral multiples of the basic dimension of this modular network, while the loci of holes for the bolt connections are integral multiples of a micro-module (mm), derived from this modular dimension, the lower order supporting elements of the supporting system being supported on each other and/or on higher order supporting elements directly or via a connecting element, while the framework of the building is completed by a load-bearing roof plate.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Efforts to eliminate the seasonal nature of the building industry and building activity have in recent decades led to the development of so-called industrialised building methods. The essence of these methods is that in a purpose-built factory, under industrial conditions, the elements of the building are prefabricated to the greatest extent possible at high accuracy and productivity. In this way, the amount of work to be done on site can be minimised and in practice such work consists merely of assembling the fully finished elements by various erection methods.
Within this "assembled" building method, which can with justification be called industrialised, one can distinguish between a so-called heavy structure and light-structure system, as well as a system between those two, the so-called "facilitated" building system. Most of the building systems of the light-structure type are of the frame building construction which means that the load-bearing system is constituted by a metallic structure, generally of steel.
Metallic structures have relatively low own weight relative to their load-bearing capacity but this very favourable property is in many cases negated by the fact that specific investment costs significantly exceed those of concrete buildings. In addition, numerous anti-corrosion and fire-protective measures must also be carried out with such structures. For the listed reasons, the employment of light-structure metallic frame buildings can in many cases only be justified by the relative shortness of building time and the minimal labour requirement on site.
It is fundamental requirement of metallic light-structure building frames that they should be capable of being assembled from a small number of elements which should be identical as far as possible on the other hand they should be readily connectible together. The classifiability of frame systems and the industrialised nature of building methods both require that these connections should be capable of being formed in a unitary manner.
Hitherto known metallic structures for building frames have not enabled the number of profiles to be reduced nor have they enabled connections to be made in a unitary (identical) manner. In building systems throughout the world several different support types are used as elements of the frame structures. Naturally, as a consequence of this the junctions of individual support types with each other and with other support types necessitate the employment of a number of connection constructions of differing characteristics. Because of the differing locations for the junctions even in the frame systems themselves the highly desired unification could not be achieved.
With partial unification that has been achieved so far only one or two requirements made for building structures of different types have been satisfied and thus so-called "purpose-built" structures have been developed. This means that such structures cannot meet all demands for a building with an intended use or purpose differing from the original design.